Recently an article was published entitled “Factual Errors”. The article, written by me was less about the specifics of factual error and more to make the point that one must be keenly aware and sure of the facts when addressing a subject as serious as making public accusations of criminal wrong doing of the highest order. Nevertheless a response came which called into question the accuracy of my assertions in a subsequent article by Janmastami Prabhu entitled “Factual Errors In Factual Errors”.

Quite frankly, I am not interested in posing as some kind of authority of what happened in New Vrindavana or in the murder of Sulocana Prabhu, the point of my article was about encouraging people to make sure they are positive of their facts before making public statements regarding such a serious matter, I feel this point was made by what was published. Having said this, because my assertions were then questioned by someone who by their admission was very close to the inner details of Sulocana Prabhu’s murder I will respond and thus allow the readers to see from where my assertions came and let them be the judge of the validity of my statements.

Janmastami Prabhu contends that Tirtha was in fact under surveillance.

My contention that Tirtha was not placed under surveillance is based on conversations with the LA homicide detectives sometime after Tirtha’s arrest where they described a very concerted effort being made by several police agencies to locate and arrest Tirtha. Through the various interviews with various individuals which lead to Tirtha being a suspect in Sulocana's killing, the detectives had come across information that indicated Tirtha might have committed additional murders outside of the movement. These other alleged victims were thought to have had no link to ISKCON or Keith Ham. This growing list of allegations of Tirtha’s tendency towards premeditated homicide was of tremendous concern to law enforcement. If the allegations being made about Tirtha were true he was in fact exhibiting behavior patterns associated with serial killers and thus the police were quite concerned with his immediate apprehension.

Again I remain on record that suspected serial murders are not placed under observation to see if they are going to kill again, especially when they are making every effort to conceal their whereabouts and there is evidence that they are planning to flee the country. It is important to note that despite any suspicions of certain Law enforcement agents, Tirtha has not to date been charged with any additional crimes.

Janmastami Prabhu contends that Keith Ham’s a/k/a Kirtanananda's legal strategy of initially rejecting the plea agreement was based on his belief that because he was innocent there was no way he could be found guilty.

I base my representation of Ham’s attitude at that time on conversations I had with the U.S. Attorney and his staff whom I became friendly with during both my stays in Martinsburg WV where the Keith Ham/Terry Sheldon (Tapa Punj) trial took place. They described that Ham seemed excessively confident that he was going to get away with his crimes.

I personally observed the panicked movements of Ham’s legal staff after Tirtha’s testimony began. I will profess that very few completely innocent people, in the middle of a trial they are sure they are going to win due to their complete innocence, suddenly decide they want a plea agreement. Especially an advanced Guru who exists with the full confidence of Krsna’s constant protection. Once Tirtha’s testimony began, Keith Ham dropped all pretenses and showed just who he really was, a scared, pathetic little criminal, suddenly solely out to save his skin as best he could.

In days leading up to his accepting a plea agreement, when I encountered Ham wandered about the halls of the court house during meal breaks and the occasional adjournments in the proceedings he quite reeked of a perceivable arrogance. I and others waiting to testify at the trial observed that Ham would go through a pitiful exercise of glaring at anyone who was not one of his dwindling number of lackeys with a notable and comical “evil eye” stare. It was the “How dare you offend the pure devotee” stare all “Gurus” are required to learn at “ Guru School ” prior to initiating disciples.

I’m sure it’s quite clear I personally think Ham was involved in the conspiracy to kill Sulocana. I base my opinion of Ham's guilt on several key pieces of evidence and testimony brought out in trial and also having personally heard Tirtha prior to Sulocana’s murder remark "Bhaktipada wants this guy gone" in reference to Sulocana. Anyone who reviews the evidence against Keith Ham and yet maintains that he had nothing to do with and or no knowledge of Sulocana Prabhu’s murder likely has a "Free O.J." t-shirt hanging in their closet.

Janmastami Prabhu understandably took exception to my referring to New Vrndavana as being laughingly referred to as such. I could have avoided such sarcasm as it did fail to acknowledge all the devotees in residence there that were in fact sincerely toiling under the misunderstanding that they were dwelling in a spiritual environment. Recognizing that fact, I would still maintain in any debate based on sastras and not sentiment that any place where murders, pedophilia, severe child abuse and neglect, prostitution, innumerable illegal money making scams, beatings and bannings of sincere devotees are taking place is not a local worthy of the moniker of New Vrndavana. Maybe New Kalasutra, but not New Vrindavana.

Janmastami Prabhu offers that the legal fee was actually considerably higher than the figure I quoted of $300,000.00. I’m sure he’s quite right on this point and I should have been more clear. During a conversation with one of the U.S. Attorney’s staff about how Ham had even won a new trial I was made aware that Ham’s appellate attorney, Alan Dershowitz’s retainer fee ran in the neighborhood of $300,000.00. It is easy to assume the initial three hundred grand was eaten through and the ultimate bill was in fact much higher.

Completely as a side note on the subject of legal representation, while Ham was well represented by a famed attorney/ TV celebrity, Tapa Punj also apparently merited quite capable representation as his attorney was none other than Greta Van Sustran who later gained celebrity status through her reporting during CNN's coverage of the Simpson trial and more recently her own show on Faux Snooze (Fox News).

So this is my response. It is a clarification and not an attempt to further any debate on the issue as frankly this is the last I have to say publicly on the subject.